Stubbornness, Miss Emily, and the house in “A Rose for Emily”
In the short story, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the protagonist, Miss Emily, has a house that is characterized as “lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps”(251). The word “stubborn” is defined as not wanting to change, being inflexible, resisting, or being unreasonably obstinate. This definition as being unable to change or resisting change even if it is more convenient represents the house and Emily. Moreover, it also connects to real life by having Miss Emily represent how the older generation reacted to the changes after the New South came to be.
The word “stubborn” is an exceptional description for the house Miss Emily lives in because in the short story it says that all the other houses were gone, but Miss Emily’s was still there. Miss Emily’s house was the only one left in the neighborhood which used to be a very prominent place. This shows that the house is “stubborn” because all the
…show more content…
From the beginning of the story, Emily refuses to accept change, the first example being when her father dies and she denies his death for three days. Another example of why Emily is “stubborn” is when the delegates and the mayor write to her about paying taxes and she writes back on stationary that is outdated. Also, during that moment remarked that Colonel Satoris said she would not have to pay taxes so they should go talk to him about it. This shows Miss Emily is “stubborn” because Colonel Satoris had passed away ten years prior and she has not been aware of that. Lastly, when the town’s workers go to put a mailbox on her house, she shows how inflexible she is and refuses to let them despite the fact it is more convenient. Even though Miss Emily lives in a town that is going through change it does not mean she is going to change with
In the short stories of, A Worn Path and A Rose for Emily, you are able to see many similarities as well as differences between the two main characters. When you take a look at the morals of the stories you are able to have better understanding of what took place with the two characters, Miss Emily and Phoenix Jackson. One of the main pictures you see about these characters is that they are both mentally crazy.
In a “Rose for Emily”, Faulkner uses Emily’s house as a symbol of the barrier Emily forms between herself and society. As society moves through generations and changes over the years, Emily remains the same, within the borders of her own household. The house is described as “in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street”(125), but years passed and more modern houses had “obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood” (125). Faulkner set the house apart from the rest of the neighborhood, and Emily is described in the beginning as “a fallen monument” and a “tradition” indicating that she had not changed in an extended amount of time. The symbol of the house, remaining unchanged through the decades that passed becomes stronger when Emily does not permit tax collectors to pass through the threshold of the house, “She vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before”. Emily’s image of a “monument” to the community’s small society caused her to become exempt from the demands of the state that the rest of the population had to adhere to. Emily’s house enab...
Ulf Kirchdorfer, "A Rose for Emily: Will the Real Mother Please Stand Up?” ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 10/2016, Volume 29, Issue 4, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0895769X.2016.1222578
Throughout this short story Emily is presented with change. One of the first main points I noticed while reading the story was her house. The story tells about how her old square framed house was the last of its kind, surrounded by cotton gins and buissnes (pg 96). Even though something like her house may seem small, it is a piece that helps build up to emilys unwillingness to change. The most
One of the seductive factors of William Faulkner’s society in “A Rose for Emily” is the traditional and adamant mental attitude of the main character in the novel. Miss Emily Grierson was stern in her ways and refused to accept change. She was known to be a hereditary obligation to the town. When the next generation and modern ideas came into progress she creates dissatisfaction by not paying her taxes. For many years and through the time of her death she would receive a tax notice every December and it would be returned by the post office a week later unclaimed. When the town got free postal delivery, Miss Emily was opposed to the new idea. She herself did not allow them to fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mail box to it. She has no tolerance when it comes to modern ideas. Depression and anguish increased within her causing major conflicts after her father’s death. Being left alone and without any close family to seek support from, she dwelled in disbelief. As custom from the town all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, but Miss Emily met them at the door with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. For three days she was inclined to disbelieve and what had happened while minister and doctors tried to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.
One may have heard the simple saying that “Love can make you do crazy things.” Many adults can confirm that the saying proves true; one could even spend a few hours watching CSI type of shows that portray the stories of two love-struck people becoming cold-hearted killers just to be with their significant other. Why would they be so desperate to be together that they would kill anyone who got in between them? Desperation so serve that they would even kill a loved one? It could be that as children they were deprived of love and nourishment that children normally receive. This deprivation of love led them to cling to anyone that made them think they were being love. In A Rose for Emily and Tell-Tale Heart a character murders someone who they love. The two works, share similarities and differences when it comes to the characters, the narratives point of view and reason for killing a loved one.
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” Miss Emily Grierson holds on to the past with a grip of death. Miss Emily seems to reside in her own world, untarnished by the present time around her, maintaining her homestead as it was when her father was alive. Miss Emily’s father, the manservant, the townspeople, and even the house she lives in, shows that she remains stuck in the past incapable and perhaps reluctant to face the present.
William Faulker’s "A Rose for Emily", is a story told from the viewpoint of a
In the story, Emily can be described as a very stubborn person. This assumption is made “[w]hen the town got free postal delivery” (Falkner 628). “Miss Emily alone refused
Miss Emily not only has a hard time of letting material things go, but she also has a tough ti...
... occurring in her life. The stubbornness of Emily is then also shown when the narrator describes the house as "stubborn and coquettish" (315).
The theme of "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner is that people should let go of the past, moving on with the present so that they can prepare to welcome their future. Emily was the proof of a person who always lived on the shadow of the past; she clung into it and was afraid of changing. The first evident that shows to the readers right on the description of Grierson's house "it was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street." The society was changing every minutes but still, Emily's house was still remained like a symbol of seventieth century. The second evident show in the first flashback of the story, the event that Miss Emily declined to pay taxes. In her mind, her family was a powerful family and they didn't have to pay any taxes in the town of Jefferson. She even didn't believe the sheriff in front of her is the "real" sheriff, so that she talked to him as talk to the Colonel who has died for almost ten years "See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson." Third evident was the fact that Miss Emily had kept her father's death body inside the house and didn't allow burying him. She has lived under his control for so long, now all of sudden he left her, she was left all by herself, she felt lost and alone, so that she wants to keep him with her in order to think he's still living with her and continued controlling her life. The fourth evident and also the most interesting of this story, the discovery of Homer Barron's skeleton in the secret room. The arrangement inside the room showing obviously that Miss Emily has slept with the death body day by day, until all remained later was just a skeleton, she's still sleeping with it, clutching on it every night. The action of killing Homer Barron can be understood that Miss Emily was afraid that he would leave her, afraid of letting him go, so she decided to kill him, so that she doesn't have to afraid of losing him, of changing, Homer Barron would still stay with her forever.
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” he uses many literary elements to portray the life of Emily and the town of Jefferson. The theme of the past versus the present is in a sense the story of Miss Emily’s life. Miss Emily is the representation of the Old South versus the New South, mainly because of her inability to interact with the present or come to terms with reality. Holding onto the past and rejecting change into the present led Miss Emily into a life of isolation and mental issues.
Faulkner then shifts the story toward explaining what Emily’s house had once looked like. It was a big grim house that was once white. “It was a big, squarish frame house that has once been white, decorated with cupolus and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies”(542). It was the only one left on the street and many believes that it was an abomination to the community. “set on what had once been our most select s...
Miss Emily's house as the setting of the story is a perfect metaphor for the events occurring during that time period. It portrays the decay of Miss Emily's life and values and of the southern way of life and their clash with the newer generations. The house is situated in what was once a prominent neighborhood that has now deteriorated. Miss Emily's "big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies of an earlier time," now looked awkward surrounded by "cotton wagons" and "gasoline pumps." The townspeople consider it "an eyesore among eyesores." Time has taken a similar role with Miss Emily altering her appearance from that of a "slender figure in white" (624) to that of "a small, fat woman in black" (622). The setting of Faulkner's story defines Miss Emily's tight grasp of ante-bellum ways and unchanging demeanor.. Through her refusal to put "metal numbers above her door and attach a mail box" to her house she is refusing to change with society. Miss Emily's attitude towards change is ...